KING HENRY THE FIFTH PROLOGUE Enter Chorus. Chor. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! 10 2. invention: four syllables, as million, line 16, is three. W. 10. The theatrical allusions in the speeches of Chorus are very interesting. The stage is called a scaffold because it really was one placed in the middle of the circle, "this wooden O," "the girdle of these walls," in which the spectators sat and stood. It is called a cockpit probably because it was not unlike one; several of the older theatres were used at times for bull and bear baiting and for cockfighting. One of the theatres built shortly after this time was called The Cockpit. Attest in little place a million; 20 Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them 30 Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, [Exit. ACT I SCENE I. London. An antechamber in the KING's palace. Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY. Cant. My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urg'd, Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign 18. imaginary = imaginative. In 1. 25 the word has the modern meaning. 26. This was Shakespeare's general view of stage-setting. Cf. the satire on Wall and Moonshine in A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, i, 40-65, and V, i, 125–250. 1. bill after this scene we hear no more of the bill. It disappears when it has served its purpose of introducing King Henry by the very flattering mention of the archbishop. Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, We lose the better half of our possession: For all the temporal lands which men devout Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. Cant. 10 "T would drink the cup and all. Ely. But what prevention? 21 Cant. The King is full of grace and fair regard. Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not. And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, 24. courses: these are the courses presented in 1 Henry IV. Shakespeare merely alludes to them as well known to his audi ence. The contrast between the wild youth and the serious king is not necessary to his purpose in this play. Leaving his body as a paradise, To envelope and contain celestial spirits. With such a heady current, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat and all at once Ely. We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And all-admiring with an inward wish 30 You would desire the King were made a prelate: 40 Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, You would say it hath been all in all his study: A fearful battle render'd you in music : The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, 50 50 33. reformation in a flood: an allusion to Hercules's cleansing of the Augean stables by turning a river through them. W. 38. Hear him but reason in divinity, etc. All this is mere fancy; there is no evidence that Henry V had these faculties and accomplishments. W. |